I researched the effects that factory farming has on animals, humans, and our community because I wanted to know exactly what happens to the animals that we are consuming. Factory farming is defined as “a system of rearing livestock using intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions.” This topic should interest the reader because the process of factory farming is very inhumane and many people do not know what is actually in the meat they are consuming. I discovered that factory farming is inhumane and very unhealthy. To begin with, factory farming is very inhumane. According to “The Humane Farming Association,” Senator Robert Byrd even gave a speech on the issue.
Factory farming is broken system where extreme animal abuse is the norm. A lot of animal cruelty happen in factory farming. Animals are confined by the thousands and forced into overcrowded conditions . These conditions cause animals to stress , Lowers their immune system, and allows disease to spread. This threatens both animals and human health.
5.) What the farm does causes animals, such as the pigs, to suffer. (from 4) 6.) Torturing pigs is as cruel as torturing other animals, such as puppies. 7.)
Factory farms breed for more desirable traits to satisfy human’s demands. Leder provides an example of how factory farms could manipulate the genetic information of chicken to breed for large-breasted “white meat” chickens. Not only is factory farming harming animals, it is also harming humans. Factory farms’ waste runoff into our environment and can harm those in the proximity with various diseases and other dangerous side effects. The treatment of these animals arises the ethical concern of the human-animal relationship- to respect the community and understand environmental sustainability.
The factory farms do this by having animals grow at faster rates and generating food faster. Factory farms help society have an easier time by following the standard of living and meeting people’s needs. Without factory farms the food shortage of 2050 will happen and the American population will be immensely struggling. Since the factory farms produce animals quick and cheap, the food in 2050 will be able to be spread throughout America at extremely fast
Animals that go to slaughter houses see misery long before arriving. Animals lay in their own manure while on the farm and are vulnerable to many diseases due to the lack of health care they receive. Many of these animals are not properly cleaned before being slaughtered. One former slaughterhouse employee states, “One of the real problems is that animals have spent their lives lying in their manure, are smeared and caked with the stuff, and they’re entering the food plant” (Pollan). One other slaughterhouse worker also said, “During the evisceration of the animal, the manure can get on the meat.
Alternatives Factory farming is a major problem throughout the U.S.A that is more popular than one would think. Some ways to stop factory farming involves the people to do the work, like buying from humane meat companies. Other alternatives to stop factory farming involves the law to do the work, like banning gestation crates or requiring all agricultural animals to become free range. A second alternative is planting humane meat industries in local grocery stores, like Cub or Hivee, instead of in specific stores, like whole foods. When people know that they have a choice to help a good company and still receive the goods that they want, they will buy from that good company.
Some environmental effects that are occurring around factory farms are pollution and also decreasing in water. 1kg of beef takes 90 bathtubs of water!!!! If the animals were allowed to walk around and eat grass we would save water and grains because the water would be coming from the rain on the grass and the nutrients in the grain would be coming from the grass. The animals are malnutritions because of many causes like their surroundings and or just some of the factors the humans cause. “Farmers get more money for turkeys with enlarged breasts.
But gestation crates should not be in factory farming because the pigs can barely even move or go anywhere. According to “http://goo.gl/yi1EJa” it states, “The 2-foot-wide cages are so narrow, the animals cannot even turn around.” This means that the cages are very small. If people want the female pigs to be contained, the least factory farms can do is make the cages big enough for the pigs to be able to move around instead of being squished inside of a crate for months to years at a time. When in the gestation crates, the pigs cannot do nothing but lay down and stare off into space. During factory farming, gestation crates should not be allowed to use because the crates are too small, they spend too much time in the crates, and female pigs are forced to be impregnated while in the crate.
The animals in CAFOS around the world consume nearly 70% of antibiotics, perhaps more than 24 million pounds a year. This is why I think factory farming should be banned for all the safety hazards and the animal abuse towards those pigs. If we replaced all those factory farms with family farms where the cattle or pigs can run around and play until they get butchered instead of sitting in pins all there life and getting trampled to death. They also have to live in there own feces, and the ventilation system isn’t the best. Where on a family farm the animals would be able to run around without getting trampled to death, or having to live in there own feces.